VILSECK, Germany -- The 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command's Combined Arms Training Center is currently conducting its first iteration of the Stryker Maintenance Course, June 8-18, 2015, here.
12 Stryker System Maintainers, all from the 2nd Calvary Regiment, are the first Soldiers to participate in this new course that is currently only offered here.
2CR's leadership wanted to reinforce and enhance their mechanics' skill-set and coordinated with U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command and CATC to develop a sustainment Stryker Maintenance Course.
"This course is a reinforcement of the Advance Individual Training skills with an advance diagnostics focus," said Gary A. Cameron, the creator or the Stryker Maintenance Course and an instructor. "I want the Soldiers to understand the issues they have with the vehicles, the proper ways to address them, and the means to repair them in the most cost-effective and time-effective manner."
"In the past, the Stryker vehicle has benefited from contracted maintenance and units have not had the opportunity to train their Stryker mechanics the way they have trained their tank mechanics," said Brig. Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the commanding general for 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command.
Cavoli said the Army is now in a position where it needed to make this transition because the contracted maintenance and external support from U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) is going down. Units are now required to convert to self help and this is problematic because it is a very complicated vehicle with a limited knowledge base.
There are many individual courses that are intended to teach mechanics these skills, but they usually do not benefit the unit as a whole. Here, the Army was able to use CATC to turn all the various courses into a single program of instruction, said Cavoli.
This course is an 80 credit hours block of instruction that is embedded through the Army Training Requirements and Resource System, allowing Soldiers to receive promotion points upon successful completion. CATC plans to offer the Stryker Maintenance Course quarterly.
Four additional United States Army Europe units: the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, the 16th Sustainment Brigade, the 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion and Maintenance Activity Vilseck, have requested training allocations for this course.
2CR and United States Army Europe leadership see value and increased performance from their mechanics graduating from the course and believe this will help sustain a 90 percent or higher rate for their Stryker Platform, said Cavoli.
"It is my hope that this course will catch on and we will be able to use it with the other 10 fleets of Strykers throughout the Army." Cameron said.
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